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Post by crealou on Jun 12, 2013 12:23:04 GMT
Hi,
I have been dying my own silk hankies for needle felting purpose. When I use the same silk hankies for wet felting the color fades away. For example if I use a black silk hankie in wet felting it will end up blue. If I use a orange one it will end up pink. I use jacquard dyes green label for silk plus the jacquard fixative. I rinse them very well and I follow the instruction to the letter. Would I get a better result to steam them? I never did steaming before....
Any hints of what I do wrong. Thanks a lot.
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Post by Shepherdess on Jun 12, 2013 12:46:19 GMT
I don't use those. Are they an acid dye or a fiber reactive dye or something else? Are you following the instructions from jacquard or somewhere else? Acid dyes need to be heated but fiber reactive do not. If you go to Paula Burch's site she has lots of instructions and troubleshooting. www.pburch.net/dyeing/instructions.shtmlsorry it doesn't seem to want to let me make it a link.
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Post by crealou on Jun 12, 2013 15:59:57 GMT
They are specially for silk...I got my instruction from darmahtrade. I will have look at the web site you mention. Thanks a lot.
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Post by MTRuth on Jun 12, 2013 16:29:43 GMT
A lot of the silk dyes need to be steamed. I would try dharma's fiber reactive dyes instead next time you get dyes. They are a lot more color fast on silk I think, at least in my experience.
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Post by koffipot on Jun 12, 2013 19:10:03 GMT
I use acid dyes for dyeing silk hankies and either steam them or nuke them in the microwave for 7 minutes on high power. Leave them to cool in the dye, then rinse. I find black dyes can be a bit unreliable and often turn out with a greenish tinge rather than a true black. A tad of red in with the black dye can sometimes counteract this. I'm not trying to preach, but this is the method I use, which may or may not be helpful to you. I soak the hankies overnight in hot water with a good slosh of white vinegar. Next morning I lay the pile of hankies on a grid over a dish, then gently, loosely roll them and lift them into an inverted "V" and leave to drip. The hankies should be wet but not dripping when you add the dye. Open out the roll and lay flat on the rack, then pour over your dye solution, leave to soak through, then turn over and pour on more dye where it looks a bit pale. Leave to soak through again for a few minutes. Pop them into a polybag and either boil or steam for about 45 min or microwave on high power for 7 minutes. Leave to cool in the dye solution before rinsing carefully. I usually hang the pile on the washing line to drip dry.
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Post by Shepherdess on Jun 12, 2013 19:30:03 GMT
For hankies I usually use the microwave and acid dye. I didn't microwave as long as you but I was not doing many at a time. I did this several years abo. I did a lot of them and I am still using them. I haven't used the fiber reactive dye for them. I use it for silk fabric.
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Post by koffipot on Jun 12, 2013 19:36:00 GMT
They do go a long way Ann
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Post by crealou on Jun 12, 2013 22:45:42 GMT
Thanks a lot for all the detailed explanation Judith. I will take good note of that.
I use at least 100 grams of silk hankies per year that I dye with the stuff I mentioned above. I have a lot of dye ( the greed label from jacquard) left so I will have to wait before I dye the other kind unfortunately. But I will try the other kind for sure.
Thanks also to you Ann and Ruth.
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Post by zed on Jun 13, 2013 9:12:11 GMT
I googled those dyes, and rainbow silk say they are 'Silk painting dyes that can either be steamed as normal, or dipped in the fixative to avoid steaming.' why not give steaming a go? I use the same method as Judith, except I use cling film/saran wrap because my bags tend to inflate and stick to the steamer. Here's a PDF guide to dyeing, there's a table with measurements for mixing up and dyeing small amounts feltingandfiberstudio.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/direct-dyeing1.pdf
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Post by koffipot on Jun 13, 2013 9:26:08 GMT
That's a good tutorial zed. If I'm doing small amounts of say, carrier rods, throwster's waste, or other embellishing fibres, I put the fibres into jam jars in an open plastic box (to catch any boil over) and nuke them in the microwave. I often re-use any remaining dye in the jars to get a paler tint. Waste not, want not!
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Post by crealou on Jun 13, 2013 16:42:58 GMT
Thanks a lot Zed, I will have to try that if I want the color to stay with my wetfelting. I wanted to avoid steaming, but steaming do not want to avoid me obviously. Oh well, it will be a good occasion to learn something new. Got to shop for a steamer now....
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Post by Shepherdess on Jun 13, 2013 17:32:32 GMT
You don't need anything fancy just something in your dye pot to get the hankies above the water. check the second hand stores
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Post by MTRuth on Jun 13, 2013 22:50:44 GMT
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Post by zed on Jun 14, 2013 9:28:40 GMT
Mine was only £10 from Asda and it has 2 tiers.
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Post by crealou on Jun 14, 2013 11:57:54 GMT
Thanks you all for the advice. I will look at the thrift shop, I might find something there...if not, I will call Martha;)
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